This change will affect a
small number of students (0 to 5) each year who seek “credit” for their AP
laboratory experience and will greatly simplify registration and advising for
these students since CHEM 111 will now appear in their academic history. I am
now starting my fifth year as Chair of Chemistry and I have yet to see a
student AP laboratory portfolio not exceed, let alone meet, the CHEM 111
experience at UNCA. Since the students in question do not take CHEM 111, this
will not cost UNC Asheville student credit hours, and I am, therefore,
confident that this change will have only a positive impact on the institution.

Rationale:

As was mentioned above, only
a handful of students seek “credit” for their AP laboratory experience each
year. Since the listing in the AP section of the catalog lists only CHEM 132,
students currently cannot be given official academic credit for CHEM 111, even
though an evaluation of their laboratory materials demonstrates their AP laboratory
experience was at least equal to, and usually greater than the laboratory
experience in CHEM 111. The best that can be done for the students is to waive
the requirement of CHEM 111.

While the Chair of Chemistry
is charged with evaluating the student’s experience, (s)he cannot waive
requirements in the seven departments (ATMS, BIOL, ENGR, ENVR, IEMT, MATH, and
PHYS) that require CHEM 111. This confuses both students and faculty and
unnecessarily complicates registration and advising. It also creates problems
for students applying to graduate programs outside of chemistry and health
profession programs that require a certain number of credit hours of general
chemistry. The waiving of CHEM 111 leaves these students one credit hour short
of what is required even though they have had the required experience. The
proposed change will alleviate all of these problems.